Sports
Shohei Ohtani is back on a 40/40 pace. But can Dodgers give him more RBI opportunities?
Shohei Ohtani is not publicly known, nor personally sees himself, as a quick starter at the plate.
“Overall, in my career,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton, “I don’t really have a hot start in the beginning of the season.”
This year, that’s technically true again — but only if you hold the reigning National League MVP to his own stratospheric standards.
Through the opening three weeks, all of Ohtani’s triple-slash stats are down from last year (.288/.380/.550), but only because his 2024 marks (.310/.390/.646) all topped the NL. Same story with a .930 OPS that is more than 100 points lower than his gaudy 2024 total, but still good enough to rank top 20 in the majors.
With six home runs and five stolen bases, Ohtani isn’t quite on mathematical pace for another 50-homer, 50-steal season; but is on an early track to become the first player in MLB history with multiple 40/40 campaigns.
And though he has taken a few more awkward swings than normal in the opening three weeks, he has started honing in on his power stroke, too, leading off Wednesday’s win over the Colorado Rockies with a towering 448-foot blast that almost cleared the right-field pavilion.
“I think overall,” he said, “it’s been a really good first 20 games.”
The only true area of regression so far has been in one statistical category; where a glaring drop in production has signaled a key early-season problem for the team.
After racking up 130 RBIs in 159 games last year, Ohtani has just eight in this season’s opening 20 contests. Seven of them have come via his six home runs (all but one of which were solo shots). Not until Wednesday, when he returned to the plate in a seven-run first inning and knocked in Austin Barnes with an RBI single, did he record his first hit with a runner in scoring position.
“Shohei’s in a good spot,” manager Dave Roberts said recently. “We just need to get some guys on base for him.”
That reality said more about the rest of the team’s offense than its superstar leadoff man.
From the Nos. 7-9 spots in the batting order, the Dodgers have posted a .173 batting average so far, tied for worst in the majors. Prior to Wednesday, they’d given Ohtani just nine plate appearances with runners in scoring position (tied with No. 2 hitter Mookie Betts for fewest among the team’s regulars). In four of those spots, he was walked.
It created an early-season conundrum for Roberts, as he tried to shake the team out of a recent offensive lull. Should he consider dropping Ohtani in the lineup, where he could get more RBI opportunities? Or should he give his offense more time to find its footing, and hope his bottom-half hitters began heating up at the plate?
“I just feel that there’s guys who are gonna perform better than they have,” Roberts said this week, opting for the latter. “Shohei will ultimately get those opportunities.”
And on Wednesday, he finally saw signs that could be happening.
In an 8-7 win over the Rockies, the Dodgers got five hits and a walk from their bottom three hitters.
One was provided by Barnes, the backup catcher who didn’t have a hit all season before doubling in the first in front of Ohtani.
The others came from more important pieces of the Dodgers’ lineup construction: Max Muncy and Andy Pages.
Bottom-of-the-order staples who are both batting under .200 to begin the season, Muncy and Pages had arguably their best games of the year Wednesday. Pages, the second-year center fielder, went two for four with three RBIs, continuing improvements that began during his two-homer series in Washington last week.
“He is swinging the bat a lot better,” Roberts said.
Muncy, meanwhile, reached base three times with the help of a recent adjustment to his own slumping swing.
In an effort to stay more on top of the ball at the plate this year, Muncy spent his offseason purposely trying to hit grounders and low line drives. In doing so, however, he realized he had begun lurching forward in his swing. As a result, he gave himself less time to read pitches and make proper swing decisions. And even when he did, he wasn’t driving the ball like usual.
“The ball sped up on me the first few series of the season and I really wasn’t myself,” Muncy said. “I was chasing a lot of stuff and I was unable to recognize it.”
But now, he has returned to staying back in his stance and is looking for pitches to elevate. Amid a series in which Muncy walked six times, Roberts felt he also took his best at-bat of the season against left-hander Luis Peralta on Wednesday night, launching one deep fly just foul before ripping a single into right field.
“When he’s getting on base, and it was a ton this series, then that’s a good thing,” Roberts said. “So I do think that he’s turned a corner, yeah.”
The Dodgers hope that the rest of their bottom-half hitters will do so as well.
Because the more Ohtani heats up as the season progresses, the more important it will be to have guys getting on base in front of him.
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One of Bill Belichick’s stops among his book tour was on an episode of “The Pivot” podcast with Ryan Clark and Channing Crowder.
Belichick’s first interview promoting the book garnered tons of media attention, when Jordon Hudson was caught on camera butting into the conversation when Belichick was asked how they met.
Belichick has credited Hudson, 24, for being the business brainiac to his brand, but he has remained mum on getting any further than that in public interviews.
Jordon Hudson the girlfriend of Bill Belichick in attendance at Loudermilk Center for Excellence on Dec. 12, 2024. (Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images)
But that business side of Hudson was all in on Belichick’s “Pivot” interview, according to Crowder.
“He’s all in if you talk football, but if you start talking personal stuff, he starts doing the mumble and the one-word answers, and his old lady is different. She lurks,” Crowder said on his separate radio show. “It’s weird to know him as Coach Belichick running the entire organization as GM, head coach, talent coordinator, all that stuff, and then to see this tiny little 95-pound girl pretty much telling him what to do.”
Crowder added, but did not elaborate on, that Hudson “choreographed the open,” which included Belichick’s accomplishments as both a coach and author.
“She was there. She kind of coordinates and brand manages. She has her paws on the situation. It’s different . . . it was weird to be around Belichick and Jordon. I don’t see Belichick in that light. But he just smiles and nods,” Crowder continued.
Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, and Jordon Hudson (Getty Images/IMAGN)
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Hudson was not at Belichick’s interview with “Good Morning America” last week.
According to reports, Hudson interrupted the CBS interview several times and even stormed off at one point, delaying the interview by around 30 minutes.
Belichick released a statement saying he was “surprised” about getting the questions about his relationship and that when Hudson had stepped in, she had been doing her job. He went on to accuse CBS of creating a “false narrative” with so-called “selectively edited clips.”
CBS responded, disagreeing with Belichick’s version of events.
North Carolina Tar Heels football head coach Bill Belichick and his girlfriend Jordon Hudson look on during the first half of the game between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils at Dean E. Smith Center on March 8, 2025, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
In the interview with The Pivot, Belichick cleared the air on Hudson’s reported involvement with “Hard Knocks,” ultimately saying that the show was not a match with UNC. He also reiterated that Hudson is not involved with UNC football, a statement that the school itself made following reports that Hudson was barred from the facility.
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It’s the greatest gift to baseball players who attend schools in the City Section. Every season since 1969, except for two years during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, the championship game has been played at Dodger Stadium.
The championships return to Dodger Stadium on Saturday. Marine League rivals Banning and Carson will face off at 10 a.m. for the Division I title, followed by El Camino Real taking on Venice at 1 p.m. for the Open Division championship. There’s free parking and tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for students. Gates open at 9 a.m.
Three of the four semifinal games were decided on walk-off hits, showing the parity this season.
In the Open Division, El Camino Real has its top two pitchers ready to go. Devin Gonor will get the start and Luke Howe has four innings left to throw if needed. Venice has its ace, Noel Moreno (12-1) available.
As usual, handling the environment and dimensions of Dodger Stadium will be key, from catchers preventing balls in the dirt from going to the backstop to outfielders making catches in the sun.
Banning has beaten Carson two of three times this season. Carson is coming off a dramatic win in the semifinals over Taft in which Xavier Allen hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the 11th inning.
Canon King of Venice is coming off a five-for-five performance against Birmingham. El Camino Real has won nine City titles.
All the teams involved will be invited to play in the Southern California regionals that begin in two weeks.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
Danica Patrick reflects on 'emotionally abusive' relationship with Aaron Rodgers: 'wore me down to nothing'
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Former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick shared the agony of her relationship and breakup with NFL star Aaron Rodgers, during an appearance on the Sage Steele Show.
“The breakup with Aaron in 2020, because it was sudden,” Patrick said when asked what was the most painful experience.
“It felt like it was my life. So when you live with somebody, it’s your whole life… And because the nature of the relationship was emotionally abusive, so that wore me down to nothing.”
Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodgers made their red carpet debut at the 2018 ESPY Awards in July. (AP)
Patrick claims that Rogers “leaves a trail of blood.”
“Someone that you know, people could never imagine that I would lack any confidence, or belief in the simple things about who I am. Everything was torn to bits. He leaves a trail of blood. I don’t think I’m saying too much earth-shattering stuff after we — there’s been enough out there,” Patrick said.
“But it gave me the greatest gift, which is myself. It gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself.”
Rodgers and Patrick went public with their relationship in January 2018 after first meeting at the ESPY Awards in 2012.
FORMER NASCAR DRIVER DANICA PATRICK ANNOUNCES PIVOT TO TENNIS
Danica Patrick on the starting grid before the Montreal Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. (David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports)
At the time, a rep for the “Pretty Intense” podcast host and entrepreneur confirmed to Fox News that the pair were an item.
Meanwhile, Patrick told The Associated Press that she and Rodgers first crossed paths in 2012 at The ESPY Awards.
“I told him a long time ago I’d always root for him as a player,” she recalled to the outlet. “Now I am probably going to cheer for the whole team. Take out the word ‘probably.’ Now I’m going to cheer for the whole team.”
In November 2019, the pair appeared to be going strong, with Patrick even joking on “The Jenny McCarthy Show” about a proposal.
When asked when she’d get married, Patrick jokingly responded, “Um, [tomorrow] — wait, no, what?”
Back in August 2017, Rodgers opened up to ESPN, explaining it’s not always easy dating when all eyes are on you.
Aaron Rodgers recently gushed over his girlfriend Danica Patrick. (Getty Images)
“When you are living out a relationship in the public eye, it’s definitely… it’s difficult,” he said. “It has some extra constraints because you have other opinions about your relationship, how it affects your work and, you know, just some inappropriate connections… There’s some horrible media outlets that… you say something or do something, where there’s a story, and they just go with it and run with it.”
The couple then confirmed their breakup in July 2020.
Patrick later opened up on the breakup during an appearance on National Geographic’s “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” and told the survivalist that she learned a ton about herself during the public breakup.
“I think we learn the most about ourselves through relationships, but there’s nothing like heartbreak to really throw you in the deep end of that,” Patrick said, according to Yahoo! Entertainment. “But I’ve learned a lot and as broken open as I was on the sad end, I have felt so much joy in so many more instances and so many more unlikely places than I ever have, so it’s like my heart got broken open to both ends of the spectrum.”
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